JavaFx: Update UI label asynchronously with messages while application different methods execution

Question

I am trying to update the label in my JavaFx GUI asynchronously with various status message for the application.

For e.g.

A button 'update' in my Application call a method updateSettings() in the controller. Now I am try to update the label on the UI in the following manner.

@FXML
private void updateSettings() {
    label.text("message1");

    //some action

    lable.text("action done");

    label.text("calling method.. wait for some time")
    // call to time consuming method - timeConsumingMethod();

    label.text
    label.text("operation completely successfully");
}

private void timeConsumingMethod() {

    label.text("message2");
    //some actions
    label.text("message3");

    //more  time consuming actions
    label.text("time consuming method is done with success");
}

I want that these messages should be displayed in the label while the flow is getting executed, to show user about the various activities going on in the application.

How to achieve this behavior ?

Answer 1

You run your time consuming method off of the JavaFX application thread (in a Task). Tasks have special APIs in them which allow for easy provision of messages for status which can be displayed in a bound label.

What I have done with the code below is try to create a system which mimics the suggested flow and message reports you provided in your question. For various reasons as documented in the code only some messages will be visible to the user.

import javafx.concurrent.Task;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.*;
import javafx.stage.*;
import javafx.application.*;

public class MessagingDemo extends Application {
  public void start(Stage stage) {
    // "message1" won’t be seen because we perform the next action on the JavaFX 
    // application thread then update the label text again without releasing the 
    // thread to the JavaFX system.
    Label label = new Label("message1");
    label.setPrefWidth(300);

    // some action

    // "action done" won’t be seen because we set text again in the next statement.
    label.setText("action done");

    // you're not going to see this because we immediately bind text to the task text and launch the task. 
    label.text("calling method.. wait for some time") 

    Task <Void> task = new Task<Void>() {
      @Override public Void call() throws InterruptedException {
        // "message2" time consuming method (this message will be seen).
        updateMessage("message2");

        // some actions
        Thread.sleep(3000);

        // "message3" time consuming method (this message will be seen).
        updateMessage("message3"); 

        //more  time consuming actions
        Thread.sleep(7000);

        // this will never be actually be seen because we also set a message 
        // in the task::setOnSucceeded handler.
        updateMessage("time consuming method is done with success");

        return null;
      }
    };

    label.textProperty().bind(task.messageProperty());

    // java 8 construct, replace with java 7 code if using java 7.
    task.setOnSucceeded(e -> {
      label.textProperty().unbind();
      // this message will be seen.
      label.setText("operation completed successfully");
    });

    Thread thread = new Thread(task);
    thread.setDaemon(true);
    thread.start();

    stage.setScene(new Scene(label));
    stage.show();
  }

  public static void main(String args[]) {
    launch(args);
  }
}